As the Georgia General Assembly gets into full swing next week, Rep. Tommy Benton is working to get two pieces of legislation from last year made into law.

Benton (R-Jefferson) represents House District 31, which includes most of Jackson County.

One is his House Bill 40, which would require the addition of bitter tasting chemical denatonium benzoate to antifreeze sold in Georgia.
The other is legislation requested by local school superintendents that would end a requirement that school attendance notifications sent to parents and guardians be sent by registered mail.

The first bill, Benton says, would save the lives of pets. The second would save Jackson County’s school system about $10,000 a year.

“The antifreeze bill, I dropped that on (Jan. 10),” Benton said this Monday. “It was read for the first time and assigned to a committee.”
The bill stalled in the Senate last year.

“It’s a good bill, a good safety bill,” he said. “It probably should have been done years ago. Since I’ve been working on this, four other states have passed similar legislation. There are now 13 or 14 other states who have this in place.”

Benton introduced the legislation at the request of a former student, whose dogs had been poisoned by antifreeze. He also points out that a Cobb County police officer and a Forsyth County firefighter were both poisoned to death by Lynn Turner, who died recently while serving life sentences for those crimes.

The school-related bill came out of a meeting last year with the local RESA group. School superintendents cited the high cost of meeting the requirement of sending attendance notifications by registered mail, which Benton says costs about $4 per letter.

“Jackson County said it would save them over $10,000 a year,” Benton said. “It’s also costing them one person to handle all the letters. I understand that in Gwinnett County, it would save about $50,000.”

By the time a school system sends such a letter, it would have attempted to contact the student’s parents by mail, by a phone call and, if there is an e-mail address, by e-mail. Benton said he has an opinion from the attorney general that eliminating the registered letter requirement will not affect due process.

“We’ve got a tremendous number of kids missing a tremendous number of days, especially in middle school and elementary school,” Benton said.

Benton introduced the bill last year, but it stalled in the Rules Committee.

CONTACT BENTON

District 31 Rep. Tommy Benton can be reached by phone at 706-367-5891 (home) or 404-656-0177 (office); or by e-mail at tommy.benton@house.ga.gov.

For daily updates on legislative action and links to Georgia representatives, U.S. Congressmen, Senators and other officials, visit Benton’s website at www.tommybenton.com.

Mr Benton how about propossing some legislation like other states to save the tax payers some money and make Georgia a safer place to live. In 2007, the Missouri General Assembly approved HJR 7 to place on the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment designating English as the official language of Missouri. Voters then went to the polls and approved the measure with nearly 90 percent voting in favor. With that, English became the official language for all governmental proceedings in Missouri. It also means no individual has the right to demand government services in a language other than English. A common language is the cornerstone of a cohesive and united state and country. Ensuring that English is our official language is simply common sense. Another measure that directly addresses the issue of illegal immigration was passed in 2008. HB 1549 requires our Highway Patrol and other law enforcement officials to verify the immigration status of any person arrested, and inform federal authorities if the person is found to be here illegally. It also allows Missouri law enforcement officers to receive training to enforce federal immigration laws. Furthermore, the bill makes it clear that illegal immigrants will not have access to taxpayer benefits such as food stamps and health care through MO HealthNet. With the passage of this legislation, Missouri sent a clear message that illegal immigrants are not welcome in our state, and that they are certainly not welcome to receive public benefits at the cost of Missouri taxpayers.

Sounds like a plan to me. But i guess all the illegal's left Missouri and came to Georgia.

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